Planet Mars remains the best candidate from our solar system for sustaining life. Whether we’ll be the first ‘Martians’ or there already are some forms of life dwelling on the Red Planet, it’s certain that we will unveil the mystery.
Therefore, NASA won’t quit in its effort to explore Mars as much as possible. The Mars rover 2020 belongs to NASA’s Mars Exploration Program with a planned launch soon, on 17 July 2020. It will land on the Jezero crater from Mars on 18 February 2021.
Final preparations
The Mars 2020 rover has been delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, along with the cruise stage, the descent module, and the Mars Helicopter. They are scheduled for final assembly, fueling, and mounting atop of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
John McNamee, NASA’s Mars 2020 project manager, said:
Our rover has left the only home it has ever known,
The 2020 family here at JPL is a little sad to see it go, but we’re even more proud knowing that the next time our rover takes to the skies, it will be headed to Mars.
Inside the PHSF cleanroom from the Kennedy Space Center, teams will be testing mission hardware in order to ensure that all systems remain at an optimal level of performance. Technicians will load hydrazine to feed maneuvering thrusters, which will guide the rover’s trajectory toward Mars after being launched from Cape Canaveral.
The vehicle will be encapsulated inside a 5.4-meter (17.7-foot) diameter payload fairing. It’s of ULA’s Atlas 5 launcher, and it will all be transported to the Vertical Integration Facility near pad 41. Cranes will lift and position the payload on the Atlas 5 inside the vertical hangar.
The Mars 2020 Mission will cost an enormous amount of $2.6 billion, but it will be worth the money even if, for the next several decades humanity won’t be able to colonize the Red Planet.
